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Anonymous User wrote:This is very dangerous advice. At my firm it is common for people to give their 2 weeks notice and be asked to leave at the end of that same week. The exception is when the person still has a lot of active work that is not easily offloaded - not the fact pattern you describe. Big law is not the sort of place that they'd knowingly pay someone to sit around for 4-6 weeks doing nothing.

I've done this for close to 10 years. I have and had friends and classmates and acquaintances in probably a hundred firms. I have never once heard this. Nor have I seen it. Nor have I seen it from opposing counsel (many, many times people quit on opposing deal teams. They'll be transitioned off quickly, but their email always works for 2-3 more weeks and they respond to transition to new associate). Biglaw standard operating procedure is to take you off matters immediately and not give you anything new, but nobody gets escorted out sooner than they request, assuming nothing outlandish, like giving more than a month or two notice, in which case they would keep you staffed. I strongly suspect you have no idea what you're talking about, or if it is true, what you're talking about isn't biglaw. I could see it happening at some ID mill.

Anonymous User wrote:This is very dangerous advice. At my firm it is common for people to give their 2 weeks notice and be asked to leave at the end of that same week. The exception is when the person still has a lot of active work that is not easily offloaded - not the fact pattern you describe. Big law is not the sort of place that they'd knowingly pay someone to sit around for 4-6 weeks doing nothing.

I've done this for close to 10 years. I have and had friends and classmates and acquaintances in probably a hundred firms. I have never once heard this. Nor have I seen it. Nor have I seen it from opposing counsel (many, many times people quit on opposing deal teams. They'll be transitioned off quickly, but their email always works for 2-3 more weeks and they respond to transition to new associate). Biglaw standard operating procedure is to take you off matters immediately and not give you anything new, but nobody gets escorted out sooner than they request, assuming nothing outlandish, like giving more than a month or two notice, in which case they would keep you staffed. I strongly suspect you have no idea what you're talking about, or if it is true, what you're talking about isn't biglaw. I could see it happening at some ID mill.

Take a week long (two if possible) vacation prior to giving notice. Then give 3-4 weeks notice. You notice trends after so long in this job. Smart kids did this at 10x the rate stupid kids did. Trick is to give short enough notice that they won't staff you (my firm has strict if unwritten policies about staffing people who have given notice), but be off your deals.

= 4-6 weeks of no work at BIGLAW pay.

You're welcome in advance.

This is very dangerous advice. At my firm it is common for people to give their 2 weeks notice and be asked to leave at the end of that same week. The exception is when the person still has a lot of active work that is not easily offloaded - not the fact pattern you describe. Big law is not the sort of place that they'd knowingly pay someone to sit around for 4-6 weeks doing nothing.

I've done this for close to 10 years. I have and had friends and classmates and acquaintances in probably a hundred firms. I have never once heard this. Nor have I seen it. Nor have I seen it from opposing counsel (many, many times people quit on opposing deal teams. They'll be transitioned off quickly, but their email always works for 2-3 more weeks and they respond to transition to new associate). Biglaw standard operating procedure is to take you off matters immediately and not give you anything new, but nobody gets escorted out sooner than they request, assuming nothing outlandish, like giving more than a month or two notice, in which case they would keep you staffed. I strongly suspect you have no idea what you're talking about, or if it is true, what you're talking about isn't biglaw. I could see it happening at some ID mill.

Only thing even close to this is that one firm (very highly regarded), will ask that you not come in if you're not on any active deals if and only if you're going to a competitor firm. They'll still pay you for your entire notice period, up to 3-4 weeks. I believe they see it as a potential conflict of interest to be avoided.

I'm the other anon who basically said the same thing. Felt compelled to the respond given the bolded. The firm I left is a biglaw v25 firm, major market, and what I said is 100% true. It's not a SullCrom sweatshop but it's not some lifestyle firm either. I was in litigation and everyone else is talking about "deals", but I didn't exaggerate at all. Wasn't giving advice though, was just providing an anecdote. And I will also say that some partners who had served as recommenders or knew I was leaving specifically said not to give my notice until 2 weeks, thinking they'd just ax me right then. Not exactly sure why, but I went the other way and gave the 2 months and it was awesome. I do remember being gone and having to fly back for literally one day to handle something in court but then leaving again the next day. I definitely could have burned some bridges but eventually had an offer to come back so I did not.

Take a week long (two if possible) vacation prior to giving notice. Then give 3-4 weeks notice. You notice trends after so long in this job. Smart kids did this at 10x the rate stupid kids did. Trick is to give short enough notice that they won't staff you (my firm has strict if unwritten policies about staffing people who have given notice), but be off your deals.

= 4-6 weeks of no work at BIGLAW pay.

You're welcome in advance.

This is very dangerous advice. At my firm it is common for people to give their 2 weeks notice and be asked to leave at the end of that same week. The exception is when the person still has a lot of active work that is not easily offloaded - not the fact pattern you describe. Big law is not the sort of place that they'd knowingly pay someone to sit around for 4-6 weeks doing nothing.

I've done this for close to 10 years. I have and had friends and classmates and acquaintances in probably a hundred firms. I have never once heard this. Nor have I seen it. Nor have I seen it from opposing counsel (many, many times people quit on opposing deal teams. They'll be transitioned off quickly, but their email always works for 2-3 more weeks and they respond to transition to new associate). Biglaw standard operating procedure is to take you off matters immediately and not give you anything new, but nobody gets escorted out sooner than they request, assuming nothing outlandish, like giving more than a month or two notice, in which case they would keep you staffed. I strongly suspect you have no idea what you're talking about, or if it is true, what you're talking about isn't biglaw. I could see it happening at some ID mill.

Only thing even close to this is that one firm (very highly regarded), will ask that you not come in if you're not on any active deals if and only if you're going to a competitor firm. They'll still pay you for your entire notice period, up to 3-4 weeks. I believe they see it as a potential conflict of interest to be avoided.

I'm the other anon who basically said the same thing. Felt compelled to the respond given the bolded. The firm I left is a biglaw v25 firm, major market, and what I said is 100% true. It's not a SullCrom sweatshop but it's not some lifestyle firm either. I was in litigation and everyone else is talking about "deals", but I didn't exaggerate at all. Wasn't giving advice though, was just providing an anecdote. And I will also say that some partners who had served as recommenders or knew I was leaving specifically said not to give my notice until 2 weeks, thinking they'd just ax me right then. Not exactly sure why, but I went the other way and gave the 2 months and it was awesome. I do remember being gone and having to fly back for literally one day to handle something in court but then leaving again the next day. I definitely could have burned some bridges but eventually had an offer to come back so I did not.

I'm not sure we are disagreeing. You gave two months, and they didn't fire you, and it was awesome. My advice was to do exactly what you did, but with a little less notice.

The only difference is that "friendly" partners told you the group might fire you if you gave more than 2 weeks? The same partners that would have had to do the work and/or restaff you immediately if you gave formal notice?

I've never heard of what you're saying before, but you might want to look at the incentives there. Firm clearly has a policy of not really working associates after notice (like every other firm). If you think it was just a few partners in your group who knew of your plan, you're crazy. Stuff like this gets emailed around instantly to the group partner list as soon as someone mentions it even informally. The few "friendly" partners give you a piece of advice that benefits them, at your expense.

Nobody actually gets fired for giving 4 weeks instead of 2. Would actually be an economically stupid decision for firms (if the difference is more than a small period of time, associate able to take unemployment, have state law rights in CA).